The Relationship Between Tax, Data, and Cloud Computing

In a recent Tax Executive article, "the relationship between tax and data has helped to produce technological advancements that have created a tidal wave of changes for the corporate tax executive."

In this article, Vertex Inc.'s David Deputy, director of strategic development and emerging markets, and Jennifer Kurtz, principal architect, shared their thoughts on this relationship.

"The jury is still out on whether the governments will provide the calculation, as well as the storage, of post-calculated data results. The cloud makes either option doable at a reasonable cost today", said David Deputy. "Computing is now a utility like power, and tax is now beginning to understand how to create the appliances (i.e., apps) to harness this power. We are at the very beginning of this major shift. Right now we are defining the base layer, the engine to power tax performance. Once that is complete, the applications will start proliferating much as they did on the iPhone, and productivity will increase dramatically as a result."

Jennifer Kurtz then added, "a benefit (of cloud-based technology) is that tax departments do not have to be reliant on in-house IT departments, where tax may not be seen as mission critical. Since many business applications are moving to the cloud, integration technologies to move data between systems managed by clients and systems residing in the cloud are getting a lot of focus and becoming more robust, faster, and more secure as a result."

"So if data is the fuel in the tax technology revolution, what’s the new technology engine? The emergence of software specifically built and designed for tax departments, jurisdictions, and authorities has revolutionized the corporate tax space. Specifically, the development of a vast array of software applications, combined with the evolution of data management, integration, and access, has shaped the expectations and real-world experiences of tax technology users, not only in the United States but all around the globe."

Vertex Inc. offers a cloud-based sales tax solution that is designed to save time, effort, and risk associated with calculation, return, remittance, and compliance to small to medium-sized businesses. Contact us for more information.